By Nick Eatman

In four seasons, Emily Brister did just about everything imaginable for West Texas A&M.

            Scoring, rebounding, passing, defensive, leadership. You name it, Brister did it and did it as well as any player in Lone Star Conference history.

            But while her team plays on and looks to repeat at the LSC Championship in Bartlesville, Brister now finds herself excelling in two more areas:

            Coaching and cheerleading.

            Ready or not for her new roles, Brister has embraced them after she suffered a season-ending knee injury on Feb. 11 in a regular-season games at Midwestern State.

            Just like that, her season and illustrious career came to a crashing end.

            "I still cry every morning. I just want to play so bad," said Brister, wearing a bulky knee brace. "The passion that I've had to play for the last 16 years, and I wanted to go out successful, but that's not the plan that God has for me. The good thing is, I've dreamed about having a conference championship, a regional championship and nationals, and that's the thing about this, I can still get this even though I'm not playing."

            Just like she still cleaned up at the LSC awards banquet before the tournament began in Bartlesville. Brister became the first four-time LSC South Division Player of the Year, and won the Academic Player of the Year award for the third straight season.

            But one accomplishment that escaped Brister was the LSC's all-time scoring crown. Brister was closing in on former ACU star Claudia Schleyer's scoring mark of 2,770 points. Instead, she finishes her career in second place with 2,645 career points.

            "I didn't even know until that game when someone told me about it. I knew I was close, but I didn't realize where I was. It's really not a big deal at all."

            Records or not, and despite not being on the floor, the passion still runs deep in Brister, who refuses to feel sorry for herself about the injury. Nor will she let her teammates get down about it either. She plants herself right in the middle of the team bench during games, and offers up her style of support, both as an experienced player with leadership, but also as a teammate and friend.

            "I've tried to be an encourager and just a different set of eyes on the bench," Brister said. "I'm trying to be the leader that I've been for the last four years, even though I'm on the bench. I think everyone has stepped up. In the huddles, I would be that person that would say ‘hey, no excuses, we're going to get it done. But now, it's a lot harder when you're not on the floor."

            While she gives her support to the team, she's helping the coaching staff as well. Brister said West Texas head coach Krista Gerlich has also encouraged her to provide an extra set of eyes to her and the staff as well.

"She tells me to let her know if I see something out there," Brister said. "I was hesitant at first, but now I'm doing it a little more."

            As the Lady Buffs try to win a second straight LSC tournament in Bartlesville, Gerlich said it wasn't easy at first to convince her team it could win without Brister.

            "I talked to them about, we're a very good basketball team with Emily. But we're a very good team without her," Gerlich said. "I told them that one player doesn't have to replace 25 points. They each have to do a little bit. They have to get two or three more points here, one or two more rebounds there. A couple of assists here, take a charge. Emily has made us great for four years. And she's pretty much done all she could do. Now it's time for the other girls to step up."

            For Brister, she knows her playing days are completely over. While Brister said there might have been some opportunities for her to play professionally, she doesn't have any intentions to keep playing. . 

            "I've had some interests, but I'm really not interested in it," said Brister, who is engaged to former WT basketball player Tyler Cooper. "I'm getting married in the summer. I'm done after this year. (Before the injury) I had already decided, that I wasn't going to play again."

            So if she's not playing, what's next for Brister?

            "I'm graduating in May and I'm going to teach elementary school next year," she said. "I've looked into going into coaching, but after this injury, I'm not so sure. I see now what a coach goes through and I'm not sure if I can put my entire trust in someone else to do the job. I'm not sure how they do it."

            While coaching may or may not be in her long-term future, it's as close to the action as Brister can get, at least for a few more games.